Mode of connecting the trucks of railway-cabs



T. F. ALLEN.

I Car Truck. No. 19,331. Patented Feb. 16, 1858.

FTC.

T. F. ALLEN, OF DYERSVILLE, IOWA.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, T. F. ALLEN, of Dyersville, in the county of Dubuque and State of Iowa, have invented a new and Improved Method of Combining the Trucks of Railway-Cars with Each other and with the Bodies of the Cars; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, Figure 1 being a top View of a pair of trucks placed under the bottom timbers of a car-body and representing my improved method of combining the same to each other; Fig. 2, a section in the line 1, 3 of Fig. 1, and Figs. 3 and 4 are representations of a portion of the apparatus detached.

So far as my observation has extended, the universal method of combining trucks with railway cars at the present time, is by simply jointing the strong transverse beams (70, 7c) of a car body with the swing beams (c, 0,) which are combined with and play freely between the two central cross-beams (cl, (Z,) of each truck. Therefore, when a train of cars are in motion, there is a constant vibratory motion of the trucks upon their joint-pins, which causes a wearing and retarding friction between the rails and the flanches of the wheels. The said trucks are also easily thrown from the track by slight obstructions, and they are also liable to be thrown from the track whenever the wheels strike a curve. And again, when the brakes D are applied to the wheels, the tremulms motion thereby imparted to the trucks, exerts a tremendous strain upon the king-bolts,

which is liable to produce injury thereto.

The improvement which I now desire to secure by Letters Patent, will perfectly remedy all the aforesaid objections to the present method of connecting the trucks to railway car-bodies. The said improvement consists in connecting the inner corners of the pair of trucks, under a car, with each other by means of diagonal rods a, a,or their equivalentsat the same time that the counteracting tension rods 7), I), connect the inner end-beams e, e, of said trucks with the king-bolts, or with the cross-beams is, 70, of the car-body. Should the diagonal rods a, a, be used without the counteracting rods 19,331, dated February 16, 1858.

b, b, they would draw the trucks inward toward each other and thereby produce too great a degree of friction between the swingbeams 0, c, and the cross-beams d, d, of the trucks. Should the said counteracting rods 6, b, be made to connect the cross-beams (Z, cl, of the trucks with the end beams Z, Z, of the carbody, as represented by red lines in Fig. 1, they will produce the same effect as if they connected the inner ends of the trucks to the king-bolts, or to the beams 70, lo, of the car-body, as before described.

A link f, descending from the central portion of the car body, sustains the weight of the central portions of the rods a, a, and prevents them from vibratingto an injurious degree.

Figs. 3, and 4, represent a method combining a spring with each of the rods a, a, in case it should be considered advisable to give a slight degree of longitudinal elas ticity to said rods. The said diagonal rods a, a, acting in conjunction with the counteracting rods b, I), will prevent the vibratory motion of the trucks upon their king-bolts, and will also enable each truck under a car to prevent the other truck from running off the track. The said rods will also relieve the king-bolts of the tremendous strain which is exerted upon them whenever the brakes are applied to the wheels.

A diminution of the amount of friction between the rails and the flanches of the carwheels produced by the aforesaid improvement, must necessarily produce an increased durability of the said rails and car-wheels.

WVhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is Connecting the trucks of railway-cars with each other and with the bodies of said cars by means of the diagonal rods a, a, and the auxiliary tension rods 1), b,or the equivalents of said rodswhen combined and operating with each other substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.

The above specification of my new and useful improvement in railway-cars signed this 11th day of January 1858.

T. F. ALLEN. Witnesses:

Z. G. ROBBINS, J. Q. ADAMs. 

